CARTILAGES are really the receptacles of the earthy materials of which
bones are made. All bones begin as cartilages, and gradually become hardened
by receiving earthy deposits. Their use, therefore, would be performed
in the heavens by spirits who are more simple and pliable in their stupidity
than those who represent the bones -- by those who know a few general truths,
while the bones are those who hold their own particular experiences. Such
would much more readily enter into easy relations with others than those
who must intrude their small experiences. Hence the bones are capped with
cartilage at the joints.

The breast-bone also terminates in a cartilage, for the sake of greater
flexibility in accommodation to the motions of the chest. The angels who
belong to this province in the Greatest Man, [p. 225] Swedenborg says,
are from our moon; and he describes their dwarfish appearance, but says
nothing about their character. (E. U. 111.)

In speaking of the various qualities in the Greatest Man, he says,--

"It has been provided by the Lord that those whom the Gospel has not
been able to reach, but a religion only, should also be able to have a
place in that Divine Man, that is, in heaven, by constituting the parts
that are called skins, membranes, cartilages, and bones; and that they
like others should be in heavenly joy; for it is not a matter of concern
whether they are in such joy as the angels of the highest heaven have,
or in such as the angels of the lowest heaven have; for every one who comes
into heaven, comes into the highest joy of his heart; he does not bear
a higher joy, for he would be suffocated in it." (D. P. 254.)